At the local auto parts store they stock Valvoline 4 stroke motorcycle oil (10w40 and 20w50) and then mobil one mx4t four-stroke bike oil. Valvoline advertises that it's fine for the wet-clutch bikes and I'm sure mobil one does also, but it seems like these guys have been in the bike-oil game for a short period of time compared to motul etc. Then again there are people who put regular automotive oil in their wet clutch bike, so....

So is anyone running either of these and having any good or bad experiences?

Thanks.

 

No personal experience with automotive oils, but I've heard anecdotal, second-hand horror stories about clutches being ruined by automotive oils.
As long as it says motorcycle on the bottle somewhere, you're probably golden.

Funny thing. I tried Motul on a road trip once (this road trip, in fact) because it was all the dealership in Oregon had; and it made my 500 shift noticeably notchier. Then as soon as I went back to Spectro synth, the shifting smoothed right out again.
Peace!
-CCinC

 

car oil is usually alright, as long as its not energy conserving oil.

oil labeled as such is no good for a wet clutch. pretty much all 0w-20, 5w-30, and 10w-30 oils are energy conserving.

 

I use Valvaline 4 stroke oil in my Ninja 250. It seems to do the job.
Allthough I don't have any previous use in other oils for any motorcycle.
But I have put 5300 miles on the bike a couple oil changes and it still runs and shifts good.

 

Going back to the notchy shifting, is this just an oil thing or a Ninja thing. 1>2 and 2>3 are notchy and louder. I wondered if it's just that (numerically) higher gear noise is obscured by speed and road noise.

 

That's what I used in my 05 500R, the 10w40 in the dark blue bottle. Seemed OK.

 

The 1-2 shift is typically the notichiest on all bikes.
This bike is decidedly NOT Kawasaki's smoothest shifter. But you can still make it shift pretty smoothly by:

~Backing out the shift cable adjuster, so that the 'friction zone' of the clutch occurs in the last inch of clutch lever travel. (Don't go too far or you will get a slipping clutch at higher loads and possibly prematurely-cooked disks.)

~Shifting slowly. This is not as simple as it sounds. When the engine is revving at higher rpm, our natural tendency is to shift quickly. If you can get into the habit of having the clutch lever completely in and shifting the pedal smoothly and deliberately, this bike will shift very smoothly even in the 1-2 shift. Like women, some bikes seem to prefer it hard/fast, but this bike is not one of them.

Most oils I've tried don't seem to make any difference. (Except for that one instance with Motul.)
Peace!
-CCinC